🔗 Share this article

After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Now, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.

The Sultan of Glitz

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, grand statement.”

A Mainstream Resurgence

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.

Pulling from History

Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”

The Coveted Retro Style

For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“This style bring about a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”

More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas

The expert says showgirls are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.

An Allure of Illusion

The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer hints at in a recent documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and 149 shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

The performer recalls her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a realm where no one makes a mistake.